Suppose the Democratic governor of Illinois had proposedradical changes in how the state operates, and supposeanger over those proposed changes inspired a popularuprising that filled the streets of every city, villageand town in the state with protests. Then, suppose therewas an election that would decide whether allies of thegovernor controlled the state's highest court. Supposethe results of that election showed that an independentcandidate who would not be in the governor's pocketnarrowly won that election.

Then, suppose it was announced by a Democratic electionofficial in Chicago that she had found 14,000 votes in amachine-controlled ward that overwhelmingly favored thecandidate aligned with the Democratic governor. Andsuppose the Democratic official who "found" the neededballots for the candidate favored by the Democraticgovernor had previously been accused of removingelection data from official computers and hiding theinformation on a personal computer, that the official'sactions had been censured even by fellow Democrats andthat she her secretive and erratic activities had beenthe subject of an official audit demanded by theleadership of the Cook County Board.

Now, suppose that the number of additional votestabulated for the governor's candidate was precisely theamount needed to prevent the independent candidate fromdemanding an official recount.

Would even the most naïve Illinoisan simply accept atface value that the new count was "legitimate" or thatthe governor's candidate should suddenly be presumed tohave been "elected"? Not likely.

Wisconsinites should respond with equal skepticism tothe news that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus, aformer Republican legislative staffer who worked forProsser when he served as Assembly Speaker and withWalker when he was a GOP rising star, has found all thevotes that justice needs to secure his re-election andthat the governor needs to claim a "win" for his agenda.

There is no need for a conspiracy theory. The factsraise the questions that lawyers, campaigners andactivists are now asking.

The clerk, who has a history of secretive and erratichandling of election results, says she forgot to countthe votes of Brookfield, the county's second-largestcity, in the total for Tuesday's Supreme Court election.

Nickolaus claims that it was "human error" that causedher to "lose" the Brookfield results on her personalcomputer where she had secreted away the data. Yet, sheapparently knew of the "mistake" for twenty-nine hoursbefore reporting it and then handed the information offto conservative bloggers and talk-radio personalities.

But what is most important to note are the numbers. WithGovernor Scott Walker's candidate, Justice DavidProsser, essentially tied with his independence-and-integrity challenger, Assistant Attorney General JoAnneKloppenburg, it was all but certain that a recount wouldbe required. And the final unofficial count, astabulated Wednesday afternoon, put Kloppenburg ahead byseveral hundred votes, giving the challenger anadvantage gloing into the the count.

Then, two days after the election, Nickolaus found the7,582 votes needed to put Prosser outside the zone of astate-funded official recount.

The Kloppenburg campaign has demanded "a fullexplanation of how and why these 14,315 votes from anentire City were missed." As part of the search for thatexplanation, the campaign plans to file open recordsrequests for all relevant documentation related to thereporting of election results in Waukesha County, aswell as to the discovery and reporting of the errorsannounced by the County."

The open records highlight concerns about thecredibility of Nickolaus-whose secretive and suspiciousactivities led the Waukesha County Board's executivecommittee order an audit of the clerk's use of electionequipment and her controversial approaches to countingand tabulating votes.

After a snap seventeen-second tally that denied mostAssembly Democrats a chance to vote on Walker's anti-labor agenda, after the threats to deny Democratic statesenators legislative voting rights, after the attemptsto close the Capitol to the people of Wisconsin, afterthe violations of open-meetings laws, after the flagrantviolations of a judges temporary-restraining order, the"Fitzwalkerstan" label seems increasingly apt. And theidea of leaving an inquiry into the Waukesha Countyscandal to authorities who bow to the governor's issimply untenable.

The circumstance lends legitimacy to the call by theadvocacy group Citizens Action of Wisconsin for "animmediate federal investigation and immediateimpoundment of all computer equipment, ballots, andother relevant evidence needed to verify a fair votecount in Waukesha County. " Citizen Action says thisinvestigation should include an accounting of allcommunications by "Kathy Nickolaus and anyone in theWaukesha clerk's office with all outside actors, and allinterested parties to the election dispute."

It also demands a full recount, no matter what theultimate margin of victory or defeat. Whether DavidProsser or JoAnne Kloppenburg is elected, the only waythat the high court will retain even a shred ofcredibility is if every ballot is recounted, everytabulation is reviewed and every citizen is certain thatthis election was legitimate.